White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed the administration is “absolutely not” trying to protect President Biden from questions over complaints from reporters about press access.
Questioning Jean-Pierre, a longtime reporter said Biden failing to hold formal press conferences is “not the norm.”
“The norm is we do get an opportunity, ask the questions to the President about domestic and foreign policy issues in a formal setting at some point, and you choose that point,” the reporter explained. “But we haven’t had that opportunity in quite some time.”
"I understand it is — it is — it is the job of you all to ask this question to me," Jean-Pierre said. "But certainly the President many times has stood in front of all of you, has taken questions on his own, because he wanted to see what was on — on your minds, he wanted to see what the questions you all were going to ask him, and he wanted to answer them directly.
"That has happened multiple times — many times during this administration," she continued. And that will certainly continue to be. When it comes to a formal press conference, I don’t have anything to share with you at this time."
She then claimed it's "unprecedented that a President takes as many shouted questions as this President has. And he has."
“No, no, no, no,” can be heard from multiple reporters in the background.
Karine Jean-Pierre says it's "unprecedented that a president takes as many shouted questions as this president has."
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 10, 2023
Reporters groan in unison at the absurdity of her statement. pic.twitter.com/A4g5sIU9ch
According to tracking from the University of California Santa Barbara, President Biden has held 21 press briefings during his time in office, which is the same amount former President Trump held in 2017 alone.